The Proposal Is Unfair to Both Users and Media Platforms

There’s a debate happening right now over copyright bots, programs that social media websites use to scan users’ uploads for potential copyright infringement. A few powerful lobbyists want copyright law to require platforms that host third-party content to employ copyright bots, and require them to be stricter about what they take down. Big content companies call this nebulous proposal “notice-and-stay-down,” but it would really keep all users down, not just alleged infringers. In the process, it could give major content platforms like YouTube and Facebook an unfair advantage over competitors and startups (as if they needed any more advantages). “Notice-and-stay-down” is really “filter-everything.”

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the nonprofit body that maintains the Web's core standards, made a terrible mistake in 2013: they decided to add DRM—the digital locks that train your computer to say "I can't let you do that, Dave"; rather than "Yes, boss"—to the Web's standards.

We wrote earlier this month about the Consumer Review Freedom Act (S. 2044, H.R. 2110), a bill that would prohibit businesses from using form contracts to prevent their customers from sharing negative reviews of their products and services online, or using bogus copyright claims to censor reviews they don’t like. We also joined a group of peer organizations in signing a letter in support of the bill.

In what we very much hope launches a “race to the top” to protect online fair use, today YouTube announced a new program to help users fight back against outrageous copyright threats. The company has created a ‘Fair Use Protection’ program that will cover legal costs of users who, in the company’s view, have been unfairly targeted for takedown.